An Apple a Day: Old-Fashioned Proverbs and Why They Still Work

If you like Caroline Taggart you will like this book. I don't know Caroline Taggart so I found this book which is full of personal observations to be too much like an extension of waffling newpaper opinion pieces. However, you may like the lighthearted almost gossipy manner.

I've noticed recently a trend for people to explain obvious things like they are uncovering forgotten truths. Starting off the book by deliberately conjoining 'Too many cooks spoil the broth' with 'Many hands make light work' and expecting us not to understand their different meanings I found insulting.

Still, it is sensibly laid-out and doesn't stint in revelation, and if it doesn't fulfil the promise of explaining why the proverbs still work then most are surely self-evident in any case. If it's just proverbs you're after it is easier to leaf through than Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and often more informative, if not as ultimately satisfying.